SHAMIMA Begum has lost a legal challenge over the decision to deprive her of her British citizenship.
Begum was just 15 when she travelled from Bethnal Green, east London, through Turkey and into territory controlled by the so-called Islamic State (IS).
Her British citizenship was revoked shortly after she was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February 2019.
Begum, now 23, brought a challenge against the Home Office over this decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, a specialist tribunal which hears challenges to decisions to remove someone’s British citizenship on national security grounds.
Following a five-day hearing in November, the tribunal dismissed her challenge on Wednesday.
At the hearing last year, Begum’s barristers Samantha Knights KC and Dan Squires KC said she was “recruited, transported, transferred, harboured and received in Syria for the purposes of 'sexual exploitation’ and ‘marriage’ to an adult male”.
They also argued that the Home Office unlawfully failed to consider that she travelled to Syria and remained there “as a victim of child trafficking”.
However, Sir James Eadie KC, for the department, said the security services “continue to assess that Ms Begum poses a risk to national security”.
Eadie later said then-home secretary Sajid Javid took into account Begum’s age, how she travelled to Syria – including likely online radicalisation – and her activity in the country, when deciding to remove her British citizenship.
The court's decision was described as "disappointing" by human rights organisation Amnesty International.
The group's refugee and migrant rights director Steve Valdez-Symonds said: "The Home Secretary shouldn’t be in the business of exiling British citizens by stripping them of their citizenship.
“The power to banish a citizen like this simply shouldn’t exist in the modern world, not least when we’re talking about a person who was seriously exploited as a child.
“Shamima Begum had lived all her life in the UK right up to the point she was lured to Syria as an impressionable 15-year-old.
“Isis have been responsible for appalling crimes in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, but that doesn’t change that Shamima Begum is British and was groomed and trafficked to Syria.
“Along with thousands of others, including large numbers of women and children, this young British woman is now trapped in a dangerous refugee camp in a war-torn country and left largely at the mercy of gangs and armed groups.
“Just as other nations have done, the UK should be helping any of its citizens stranded in Syria - including by assisting in their safe return to the UK, whether or not that means facing possible criminal investigation or prosecution.”
But the Home Office welcomed the decision, which it is thought leaves Begum stateless.
A spokesperson for the department said: "We are pleased that the court has found in favour of the government’s position in this case.
“The government’s priority remains maintaining the safety and security of the UK and we will robustly defend any decision made in doing so.”
